Film Roar

The Saddest Music in the World (2003)

One of the challenges I encountered from watching The Saddest Music in the World (2003) was wonering 'how am I going to describe this to people'. Try as I may I could not come up with a coherent description that would begin to do the film justice. Fortunately for me someone more eloquent than me wrote an excellent synopsis at www.rottentomatoes.com though the description does not relate (is there a way to relate?) the surrealistic look of the movie. The greatest challenge though was maintaining some semblance of willing suspension of disbelief as one outrageous premise was laid atop another. If you can sit through the rather uninteresting melodrama you will be rewarded with a rich aesthetic and a unique movie. Truly unlike any movie I have seen before.

I have never seen any of director Directed by Guy Maddin's other movies but from what I have read The Heart of the World (2000) and Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002) are equally free in their loose interpretation of the cinematic form. One gets the feeling that Maddin is more interested in searching for the boundaries of film as art than in producing movies as any sort of entertainment. This has some obvious advantages: the look and style of the movie are unique, interesting and thought provoking as well as some disadvantages: the final work is hard to sit through, hard to digest and days later I am still not sure whether I could say that I 'liked it'.

An incident outside the theater is probably exemplary of how I reacted to the movie. Even though it was cold and wet outside my friends Gretchin, Sven and I stood for a good while discussing the experience we had just shared for a good half an hour. I think we were all looking for some handle we could use to put the movie in enough of a context to try and make sense of it. As we shared our thoughts (with occasional digressions to talk about Star Trek because you cannot get Sven and I together for any period longer than 10 minutes without bringing Sci-fi into the picture) a man and his date approached us and asked 'is this movie any good'. We all stood there and looked at each other hoping for some clue about how to even approach the question. We each gave non-committal answers qualified by the qualities we each liked and disliked to which he answered 'yes but did you like it'. Another round of 'well it depends' and 'if you like this you might like that' frustrated the man enough that he asked for Boolean response 'thumbs up or thumbs down'. All I could do is put my thumb sideways. The next thing that happened was probably more appropriate to the situation than anything else that had transpired: in an odd moment of magical surrealism the door attendant then recognized the man's date as a woman he had gone to middle school with and the conversation took a sudden 90 degree turn to the right.

Now, if you are reading this review in the hope that you may learn enough about The Saddest Music to decide if you are interested enough to see it you are probably pretty frustrated that a page later I have not really said anything about the movie or the story itself. I must admit that is rather intentional, as I said in the opening paragraph, I don't really know how it is that I can describe this movie to anyone who has not seen it. I can however relay some of my impressions. The movie makes heavy use of symbolism, maybe a bit too much. Sometimes the intentional distortion of size between people and setting seemed purposeful and effective while at other points it felt like a cheap cheat to save on the set construction budget. The main themes of the movie feel both obvious and obscure. Maddin seems to have no problem with characters relaying exposition in a blatant form. When Roderick returns to Winnipeg, for example, he plainly states his background and mindset for the benefit of the audience yet there are themes present throughout the script that are never directly addressed. When you consider the actions of each of the characters they all seem to be motivated by a desire for sympathy. The intertwining stories, melancholy themes and above all the presence of the death of a child as a central plot device all reminded me of other Canadian movies, especially those of the great director Atom Egoyan (Sweet Hereafter, The (1997), Exotica (1994))

The acting in The Saddest Music felt a bit uneven to me. Probably the best performance in the movie was that of David Fox as Fyodor the alcoholic obsessed father. Ross McMillan playing Roderick felt a bit, well, melodramatic but I don't know that I can fault him for seeming to overact since that is the primary quality that the part seems to have called for. Mark McKinney I thought did a fine job as Chester, the always happy entrepreneurial American (he really is Canadian but wants people to believe he is from the USA so he is grandiose in all he does and does not seem to care about others). There is a moment when Chester explains his plans to win the 'Saddest Music in the World' contest with American showmanship that I adored. I wish I had the exact quote but it went something like this "It must be vulgar, obvious, and full of gimmicks." The character of Chester annoyed me throughout the movie but once again I believe this is the way he was written. I was also impressed by how McKinney was able to handle Chester's assertion that he is never sad even as his world collapses around him. I was happy to see the always enchanting Maria de Medeiros in the role of Narcissa (you may remember her as Anaïs Nin in Henry & June (1990) or Fabienne in Pulp Fiction (1994)) though her screen presence was so brief that at times it felt more like a cameo than a major part. The lead part of Lady Port-Huntley is portrayed by Isabella Rossellini (Blue Velvet (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), Immortal Beloved (1994)) who I thought did a very poor job. I may be prejudiced though as I cannot think of a single role by Rossellini that I have liked.

All in all I think The Saddest Music was worth watching though I honestly believe the most interesting elements (the film treatment, the setting) could have been achieved perfectly well in a ten minute short (the movie felt too long at an hour and a half). If you still want more information about the movie I suggest reading the synopsis linked to at the beginning of the review or searching for other reviews from people who have seen it. The two reviews at Hollywood Bitchslap I think do a fair job of describing the good, the bad and the ugly in this movie.